Despite the return of summer temperatures, fall was definitely in the air this week with political pros' thoughts turning to upcoming committee hearings, presidential primaries and new budgets as agency heads prepared for yet another tight-fisted session.

Florida's economy continues to sputter, and it was reported this week that the state's unemployment rate remained unchanged in August. And the Legislature's top economist warned of future revenue shortfalls.

Florida Republican leaders this week named members to a committee that will begin meeting next week to decide when to hold Florida's 2012 presidential primary. Deliberations will likely spark national attention again as the swing state tries to make its case for prominence in the 2012 presidential race.

Also this week, Florida teachers took their fight over merit pay to the courts, while a federal judge in Miami put a cork in a National Rifle Association-backed law preventing physicians and other health-care providers from asking their patients if they own guns.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. customers meanwhile took their battle to Tampa in an effort to prevent sinkhole rate increases that could cost some homeowners thousands of dollars a year.

ECONOMY IDLES, REVENUE PICTURE DARKENS:

Florida's unemployment rate held steady in August at 10.7 percent. While still 0.9 percentage points lower than a year earlier, the persistence of joblessness seems to underscore repeated warnings from economists that Florida's recovery would be a prolonged affair.

Amy Baker, coordinator of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said Wednesday that earlier projections of general-revenue growth this year and during the 2012-13 fiscal year will drop "fairly significantly.''

That means more difficult budget choices for lawmakers when they start the 2012 legislative session in January -- though Baker said things won't be as bad as during last spring's session, when lawmakers faced a $3.6 billion shortfall. Analysts, including Baker and representatives of the governor's office, House and Senate, are scheduled to meet Oct. 11 to revise general-revenue estimates.

"I believe that you will be looking at another tight session,'' she concluded.

Tight budgets were also on the minds of agency heads who this week turned in their wish lists for the coming fiscal year. Some are already making their pitch for increasingly scarce funds. Department of Children and Families officials, for example, are asking lawmakers next year to bolster child-protective investigations.

An agency budget proposal submitted this week seeks tens of millions of dollars to add and retain child-protective investigators, improve technology and better coordinate efforts with local law enforcement.

The budget documents outline problems with high turnover among investigators, large caseloads and low pay. The proposal, which would need legislative approval next year, comes seven months after the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona showed the need for improvements.

Part of the proposal seeks $15.8 million to improve technology in the child-protection program, such as equipping investigators with mobile technology that would allow them to get case information remotely and also enter notes and details. DCF also wants to shift nearly $25.3 million into the child-protection program, including adding investigators, improving pay and providing money to local law enforcement to better coordinate in child-protection probes.

FLORIDA TEACHERS HEAD TO COURT:

The Florida Education Association, meanwhile, went to court in Tallahassee to try to shoot down a merit pay law that ties the salaries of teachers and other school employees to student performance. The union says the new law is unconstitutional because it violates a right to collectively bargain for wages, contracts and promotions that is guaranteed in the state Constitution.

"This sweeping change totally changed the teaching profession in Florida," said Andy Ford, FEA's president, during a news conference Wednesday.